


And Yet Content

by NoOneKnowsIWriteThis



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-08 08:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12250434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoOneKnowsIWriteThis/pseuds/NoOneKnowsIWriteThis
Summary: When Garak moved into his new apartment, he didn't expect to be sharing the space with a ghost.-Three-shot, Human AU





	1. A Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Because this is a Human AU, Cardassia is a country.

Garak had gotten an excellent deal on the apartment. The building was brand new, but the area around it was filled mostly with students from one of the two nearby colleges and this building was a bit out of the usual college student price range.

 

He'd only been living there a few weeks when he started to notice unusual things.

 

At first it had been minor: a book, newspaper, or magazine left open to a different page than he remembered. Then it had progressed to whole books being in different places than he'd left them. If he tried to reshelve the books, he'd occasionally find them somewhere else later.

 

Garak didn't like this; it felt… supernatural. And the supernatural wasn't something he was trained to deal with. Regardless, he needed more information, so he laid a trap. He set up a hidden camera focused on the latest effected book and left the room.

 

He watched the view from his laptop in the bedroom. There, on the screen, appeared a young man in blue pajamas. His eyes scanned the open pages of the book, then, when he got to the end, he turned the page and began to read the next one.

 

Silently, Garak stalked back into the room.

 

“Hello, young man,” he greeted politely.

 

The young man in question looked up, startled, and then vanished.

 

Garak let out a sigh. “I'm not going to hurt you, my dear, but if you're going to snoop through my books, you might as well introduce yourself.”

 

The man shimmered back into view. “I'm not snooping,” he protested in a crisp English accent. “I'm reading.”

 

“My name is Garak, tailor by trade and Cardassian by birth,” he said, offering the ghost an example in proper manners.

 

“Julian Bashir,” the ghost replied, instinctively holding out his hand to shake. “Medical student.” He glanced sheepishly down at his translucent hand and lowered it. “Former, now, I suppose.”

 

“Not that I object to your presence,” Garak did. He didn't like that the young man had managed to occupy his space for so long without being noticed, “but  _ why _ are you haunting  _ me _ ?”

 

To his surprise Julian seemed almost embarrassed. “I didn't mean for you to notice,” he murmured. “It's just...being dead is kind of boring, so I just thought I'd…” He trailed off.

 

“You thought you'd help yourself to my shelves?” Garak asked, eyebrow raised. Julian nodded rather than speak, looking for all the world like a child who'd been caught misbehaving. “Well, I suppose I can understand that.” Julian looked up warily, the tentative beginnings of a smile pulling at his lips. Garak found himself wanting to draw out that smile, to make it shine across the ghost’s face, but first there was still a point of curiosity to be cleared up. “If you don’t mind my asking…”

 

“How did I die?” Julian quickly finished the question. “I lived in the building that used to be here. One night there was a fire…” He shivered, clearly uncomfortable going into detail. “I don’t remember much of it, thankfully, but the old place was torn down, this one was built, and here we are.”

 

“So you died fairly recently…” It was half a statement, half a question.

 

“Three years ago,” Julian answered quietly. “I was twenty-four.” Garak considered the situation. Julian seemed friendly enough, and it wasn’t like he could keep the ghost from going wherever he chose.

 

“Well, Julian, you are more than welcome to stay-”

 

“Really?!” Julian exclaimed eagerly. His smile could light up the room by itself.

 

“As long as you don’t make a nuisance of yourself,” Garak finished, surprised to find himself smiling as well.

 

“I won’t,” Julian promised quickly. “You’ll barely know I’m here.”


	2. A Gift

As the weeks turned into months, Garak found himself growing more and more fond of the young ghost. Julian proved to be an excellent companion for a lonely tailor. He was clever and quick, a voracious reader, and an eager listener. Sometimes, he’d flicker out of sight for a moment while Garak was telling a story, so entranced that he forgot to stay visible.

 

Julian didn’t always stay in Garak’s apartment, sometimes he would drift invisibly around the building, but he rarely ventured beyond its walls, and he was almost always back in time to greet Garak when he came home at the end of the day.

 

They’d slipped into a habit of Garak reading aloud to Julian in the evenings. Julian was capable of reading on his own, but he confessed to Garak that having enough of a presence to hold books and turn pages required a lot of effort and he found it exhausting. So they would read together, and they would talk, and Garak’s life became a little less lonely.

 

Garak had decided to express his gratitude by giving Julian a present. During one of their many conversations, Julian had let slip that he’d had a teddy bear named Kukalaka, but when Julian had perished in the fire, Kukalaka had been lost as well. Garak had decided to provide a replacement.

 

He’d assembled the new bear out of scraps over the course of a few days. When he’d revealed the present by placing the bear on the couch between them, Julian’s look of pure joy had been more than worth the effort.

 

Julian sometimes cuddled the bear when they read together, but mostly he just kept the bear nearby on the couch, explaining that maintaining enough of a presence to consistently hold something was very exhausting.

 

Sometimes Garak held the bear as he read, and the looks of affectionate gratitude he spotted when Julian thought he wasn’t looking made every problem in Garak’s life melt away.


	3. A Wish

It was a night like any other. Garak had just finished telling Julian about a terrible customer who hadn't known at all what he wanted, but knew that everything Garak suggested wasn't it. Julian began to laugh, quietly at first, but it quickly became louder before ending with a quiet sigh. The two sat in comfortable silence for a bit before Julian spoke.

 

“...I wish I were alive,” he said softly. It was a familiar wish, one Julian had expressed quite a few times during their friendship.

 

“What would you do if you were alive right now?” Garak asked quietly. The oddest things could get Julian into this wistfully melancholic mood. Sometimes he longed to feel raindrops on his skin or carpet under his feet, other times the smell of a meal made him miss eating.

 

“I'd kiss you,” Julian answered, somehow visibly blushing despite being a ghost.

 

Slightly surprised, Garak gave the young man on the opposite end of his couch a tender smile. “Then I wish you were alive too.”

 

Julian chuckled, clearly amused. “Other than that, you're fine with me being dead?” he teased.

 

Garak sighed and shook his head. “You wouldn't spend time with an old tailor if you were living. You would be with people more... lively.”

 

Julian floated along the couch, drawing closer. “Don't sell yourself short,” he countered. “I enjoy spending time with you.” Tentatively, Julian raised his hand and attempted to cup Garak's cheek. It was as if Garak had dipped half his face in a cool lake. He shivered involuntarily, causing Julian to quickly draw back.

 

“It's alright,” Garak said quickly, trying to reassure the nervous ghost. “I just wasn't expecting…” He searched for the right words as Julian carefully watched his expression. “You feel like water,” he settled on. “Cool water. I wasn’t prepared for that.”

 

Julian blinked. “Oh.” That clearly wasn't what he'd been expecting to hear.

 

“Yes,” Garak confirmed. “But I'm prepared now if you'd like to try again.”

 

Julian eagerly floated back over, but this time, rather than bringing his hand to Garak's face, he leaned forward and, as best he could, pressed his lips to Garak's in a ghostly kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. I hope you enjoyed this extremely short bit of seasonal fluff.


End file.
